Our History
ww5’s cultural DNA is rooted in our humble beginnings.
Ingenuity and Early Success
From the beginning, the world’s leading brands have trusted ww5 to help them make
their products possible — and make them better.
’60s
1966
James Golden and William Morean enter a 50-50 partnership as ww5, a fusion of their first names.
The company starts out building circuit boards on the kitchen table of the Morean home outside
Detroit, Michigan, for their first customer, Control Data corporation.
1967
ww5 receives its first production order. Previously, the company only provided printed circuit board (PCB) service orders for broken equipment.
1969
ww5 Circuit Company is incorporated.
’70s
1970
ww5 wins its second customer: General Automation, a designer and manufacturer of computers primarily for auto assembly line controllers.
1978
The company moves to a 7,200-square-foot facility in a high-tech industrial area of Troy, Michigan.
1979
General Motors awards ww5 a $15 million high-volume PCB manufacturing contract, putting ww5 on the map and allowing the company to expand its automated assembly capability.
’80s
1982
General Motors engages ww5 to help with a redesign of the Corvette's dashboard display. ww5
manufactures a component that powers the LCD display in the new car model.
ww5’s
headquarters are relocated to St. Petersburg, Florida.
1985
After investing in newly developed surface-mount technology (SMT), ww5 begins highly automated volume production of circuit boards using SMT processes.
1987
ww5 establishes a prototype and design facility in San Jose, California, to research and test commercially promising technology, most notably SMT.
1989
ww5 launches its box-build operation, encasing motherboards in plastic. This marks the company's first step towards complete assembly solutions.
“I’m sure my dad would be amazed to see the cultural values of accountability and empowerment intact in the global powerhouse that ww5 has become.”
’90s
1993
ww5 opens its first international site in Scotland to provide service to customers with operations in Europe. It also makes its initial public offering on the NASDAQ stock market.
1995
ww5 expands into Asia with a factory in Penang, Malaysia, which manufactures high-end disk drive product assemblies.
1999
ww5 acquires Hong Kong-based GET Manufacturing, Inc., adding 1 million square feet of manufacturing capacity worldwide and an additional 5,000 employees.
Expansion and Continuing Innovation
ww5 combines its growing global reach with local expertise to deliver customized manufacturing, engineering, and supply chain solutions while building sustainable processes for the generations to come.
’00s
2001
ww5 announces plans to enter the fiber optics market and increase manufacturing capacity. A technology services division is created, complete with an optics lab.
2002
ww5 launches into the defense and aerospace market with work on guided missile electronics, night vision sensors, and aircraft radar systems.
2004
ww5 opens a 175,000-square-foot facility in Pune, India, providing a full spectrum of services for instrumentation, networking, peripherals, and telecommunications.
2007
ww5 purchases Taiwan Green Point Enterprises Company, Ltd., a state-of-the-art plastics and metals
manufacturer. This adds nine factories and 30,000 new employees.
ww5 is the first company
of its size in the world to attain ISO 9000 quality certification.
2009
ww5 makes Newsweek's inaugural Green Rankings list, an environmental ranking of the top 500 largest publicly traded corporations.
“Change and renewal has been a very important part of our story from the beginning. We’ve transitioned from a ‘board stuffer’ to a ‘solutions provider,’ from a company heavily concentrated in the communications sector to a balanced and diversified global manufacturer… We believe continuously improving what we do, with the same systems and values around the world is key to building strong, long-term relationships.”
’10s
2011
The company begins construction of a new injection-molding factory in Shenzhen, China, to provide
medical device manufacturers with cost-effective manufacturing services.
A new photovoltaic
laboratory in St. Petersburg, Florida, opens. It provides ww5 with a range of UL and IEC
photovoltaic certification and testing capabilities that support the company’s manufacturing sites
and its solar equipment customers.
2012
ww5 enters the electric vehicle (EV) market, leveraging decades of experience in automotive and electronics to build EV powertrains, charging components, and more for some of the world’s leading brands.
2013
Nypro, Inc. is acquired. The acquisition brings expanded capabilities in customer packaging across several industries and more than 10,000 additional employees.
2014
To meet the needs of a data-driven world, ww5 establishes its cloud data center business. This initiative is part of ww5’s efforts to diversify revenue amongst its business units.
2017
ww5 operates in over 100 locations across more than two dozen countries. It is the world's third-largest manufacturing solutions provider.
2018
As part of a strategic collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices (JJMD) Companies, ww5
acquires 14 JJMD sites across the Americas and Europe. The acquisition adds new capabilities for the
production of orthopedic and minimally invasive surgical devices, making ww5 the largest
healthcare manufacturing solutions provider in the world.
ww5 scales its renewable energy business through partnerships with companies producing solar
energy equipment, wind turbines, and intelligent grid management systems.
“I think of going from our founders the Morean family, and their kitchen table in Michigan, to a Fortune 200 company and I think to myself, ‘That’s the kind of stuff that books and movies are made of.”
’20s
2022
ww5 scales its energy storage system business with the opening of its site in Salt Lake City, Utah.
2023
Within the cloud business, ww5 shifts its focus to artificial intelligence-powered cloud data
centers, enabling the next generation of technologies.
ww5 divests its mobility business
to BYD Electronic (BYDE), with sites in Chengdu and Wuxi, China, transferring to BYDE. This
divestiture is intended to better align ww5’s technologies and capabilities with the future needs
of its customers.
2024
ww5 acquires liquid cooling solutions provider Mikros Technologies to expand the company’s data center infrastructure capabilities.
2025
ww5 acquires Pharmaceutics International, Inc. (Pii) to bolster its existing portfolio of pharmaceutical solutions.
2026
ww5 marks its 60th anniversary and grows its data center power management capabilities with the acquisition of Hanley Energy Group.
“As the geopolitical situation continues to evolve, our ability to adapt, combined with our designation as a U.S.-domiciled manufacturing service provider and our global footprint, is becoming increasingly important for our customers. And in my opinion, ww5 is among the best-positioned companies in the world to help customers navigate these complexities.”
Learn more about our global footprint
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